Kent State’s women’s volleyball team split a pair of MAC Conference games against Ohio University and Central Michigan University this past weekend.

The Flashes, whose record moved to 8-8 on the season, lost to the Bobcats Thursday night at the M.A.C. Center but pulled out a win at Mt. Pleasant, Michigan against the Chippewas. Head coach Don Gromala felt that his team played well Saturday night and did a nice job of bouncing back from the loss to Ohio.

“I am definitely happy with the outcome of tonight’s match,” Gromala said, in reference to the Central Michigan game. “We did a good job of executing our game plan and rebounding from Thursday’s performance versus Ohio. Our hitters stepped up and made a lot of good decisions.” 

Against Central Michigan, the Flashes won the match in four sets behind the play of sophomore Kelsey Bittinger (18 kills) and senior Kelly Hutchison (12 kills.)

Kent State dropped the first set of the game with a score of 25-22, but it proved to be the only loss of the night. The Flashes bounced back to win the second set (25-20), the third (25-21), and the fourth (25-21) to end the game and solidify the win.

However, the Flashes didn’t enjoy the same success Thursday night against Ohio. Ohio started fast and never looked back as the Bobcats swept the first three sets (25-16, 25-19, 25-18) to win the game.

Bittinger finished with a game-high 14 kills and 13 digs, and sophomore Katarina Kojic added 35 assists in the losing effort.

After the game against Central Michigan, the Flashes moved to 2-2 in MAC Conference play and currently sit tied at third place in the East division with the University of Buffalo.

“It’s huge to get a win in our first road match against a MAC opponent,” Gromala said. “We played like we were at home.”

The Flashes travel to Buffalo, New York to take on the Bulls Friday night at 7 p.m. as the team looks to win its second straight game.

Jesse Runner is a sports reporter for The Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].